Big thanks for the work you put into the "upcoming premieres". This time of year it is invaluable for setting up season passes of new shows (and returning shows for those of us with new DVRs since the last season ended).

Absolutely, it's my bible this time of the year. Spent a few hours on Sat going through the list setting up 4 DVRs. I printed out the list and put some check boxes next to each show so I could keep track of what show I set to record on what DVR. With conflicts and 4 DVRs it can get a little confusing. Anyway, thanks for the listings.

All these plus tonight's "Heroes" season premiere is what I'll be watching. BTW Fred, Showtime will premiere and air "Dexter" at 9PM Sundays (its regular time slot all through summer) with "Brotherhood" afterwards at 10PM all season long: http://www.sho.com/site/dexter/home....rce=shocom_nav. You have the "Dexter" and "Brotherhood" times reversed on your listing.

Three underwhelming prequels haven’t killed the appeal of “Star Wars.” The season premiere of Fox’s “Family Guy” scored great numbers last night with a spoof of the popular sci fi series on a night where Fox and CBS debuted the bulk of their fall Sunday lineups.

“Guy” averaged a 5.5 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, up 17 percent over last year’s 4.7 overnight rating for its season premiere on Sept. 10.

It was the night’s highest-rated non-sports series and helped Fox to a solid second-place finish for the night behind NBC, which had “Sunday Night Football.”

“Guy’s” numbers are all the more impressive considering very few series have been up over last year over recent months. The show also gained slightly from its first to its second half hour.

Fox’s premiere of “The Simpsons” fell 13 percent from last year’s premiere, from a 5.3 to a 4.7, but it was up nicely from the show’s 4.1 average last year.

Also last night, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” hit a season high and scored the third-best metered market rating in the show’s two-year history with a game between the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys that averaged a 13.7/23 in metered-market households from 8:30 to 11:15 p.m.

CBS’s Sunday lineup was down from 35 percent from its premiere last year, most notably the 10 p.m. “Shark,” which took over “Without a Trace’s” old slot. “Shark” averaged a 2.7 18-49 rating, down 44 percent from “Trace’s” 4.8 premiere last year. It was also off 29 percent from “Shark’s” 3.8 average last season, when it aired behind “CSI” on Thursday night.

The network’s “Cold Case” also slipped among 18-49s, from a 4.1 for last year’s premiere to a 3.0, though the early premieres for the show, a day before the season officially begins, may have hurt them.

Also last night, the CW’s new 7 p.m. newsmagazine block got off to a disappointing start, drawing fewer than 1 million total viewers and averaging a 0.3 among the 18-34s the network targets.

Meanwhile, NBC led the night among viewers 18-49 with a 5.8 average overnight rating and a 15 share. Fox was second at 4.9/13, CBS third at 2.4/6, ABC fourth at 2.3/6, Univision fifth at 1.1/3 and CW sixth at 0.5/1.

Fox started the night in the lead with a 5.0 during the 7 p.m. hour with NFL football overrun and “The OT” postgame show. NBC was second with a 2.9 for “Football Night in America,” CBS third with a 2.3 for “60 Minutes,” ABC fourth with a 1.7 for a repeat of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” Univision fifth with a 0.9 for its first hour of “Hora Pico” and CW sixth with a 0.3 for “CW Now” (0.2) and “Online Nation” (0.3).

At 8 p.m. NBC took the lead with a 6.6 for football pregame and the fist part of “SNF.” Fox was second with a 4.2 for “The Simpsons” (4.7) and “King of the Hill” (3.7), ABC third with a 2.5 for another hour of its “Home Edition” repeat, CBS fourth with a 1.7 for “Power of 10,” Univision fifth with a 1.1 for another hour of “Hora Pico” and CW sixth with a 0.4 for a repeat of “Gossip Girl.”

NBC led again at 9 p.m. with a 6.8 for football, followed by Fox with a 5.5 for “Guy.” ABC was third with a 3.1 for a “Desperate Housewives” clip show, CBS fourth with a 3.0 for “Cold Case,” Univision fifth with a 1.1 for the first half of the movie “Ni de Aqui, ni de Alla” and CW sixth with a 0.8 for a repeat of “America’s Next Top Model.”

At 10 p.m. NBC led with a 7.0 for football, while CBS moved to second with a 2.7 for “Shark.” ABC was third with a 1.7 for a “Brothers & Sisters” clip show and Univision fourth with a 1.0 for the second half of its movie.

Among households, NBC led the night with an 8.9 average overnight rating and a 15 share. CBS was second at 7.0/11, Fox third at 6.4/10, ABC fourth at 4.6/7, Univision fifth at 1.4/2 and CW sixth at 0.9/2.

B&C has just learned that NBC Universal co-chief Ben Silverman wears boxer shorts. I will pause now to let everyone first grasp the magnitude of this exclusive, and then race to tip off your favorite Hollywood insider columnist (paging Defamer or Nikki Finke). You'll have to excuse me if I thought this was legitimate news, given the industry's current obsession with Silverman's personal life.

Whether it is whispered rumors over lunch at the Grill in Beverly Hills or gossip column reports about his partying, recreational drug use, sex life or whatever else, Silverman is apparently like our own little Lindsay Lohan.

Which leads to my one comment about Ben Silverman's private life: Who cares?

NBC knew (for the most part) what it was getting with the gregarious former agent and producer, as did many people in the business who know the fast-living Reveille founder.

Jeff Zucker didn't hire Silverman to be a role model. He brought him in as a Hail Mary to bail out his struggling network.

But it's Silverman's life away from the office that people love gabbing about. And the guys spreading the stories are often the ones driving the Jaguars, not the Toyota Camrys, if you know what I mean.

So, why all this gossip? First of all, it's fun. And second, people are probably pretty jealous. Jealous that this guy is now running a network. Jealous that he has a nightlife that old married guys can only dream about. (You can add my name to that list.)

One of the latest tales making the Hollywood rounds last week was about Silverman's party the Friday night before the Emmys, a shindig that apparently lasted until -- gasp -- six in the morning.

Must be nice. Personally, I'm only doing one of two things when I'm awake between midnight and six: changing my kid's diaper or worrying about how long it's going to be before someone is changing mine.

Maybe that explains why so many people are fixated on Silverman with a kind of reality-show fascination. In this day and age of consolidation and close Wall Street monitoring, network presidents have gotten boring. You have to really work to trash these people.

Silverman aside, ABC's Steve McPherson is the most outspoken of the current crop, but he just had a second kid. I wouldn't be checking TMZ to see what he's up to on Saturday nights.

Kevin Reilly just went from worst (NBC) to first (Fox) faster than my beloved 1987 Minnesota Twins. Good luck wiping the Perma-Brite grin off his face.

And you'd have about as much chance of seeing CW chief Dawn Ostroff dancing on a table at LAX nightclub in Vegas as you would seeing a lowly B&C columnist behind the wheel of a Jaguar instead of a Camry.

Given that kind of company, perhaps Silverman should find a line of work where his personal life just isn't that exciting by comparison. Football, for instance. With guys like Michael Vick and Pacman Jones hogging the headlines, a little late-night partying wouldn't even register.

It's now Silverman's job to get NBC's waterlogged primetime ship stabilized, even a bit. Achieve that, and he can do whatever he wants on his own time -- short of breaking into hotel rooms to steal sports memorabilia.

The season's just begun, and if network television's night owl can deliver at this high-stakes day job, anyone who spreads stories about his private life will just be blowing smoke.

My HR20 and HDTivo are going to be working overtime this season. I think we're recording more this year than ever before. I'm actually hoping that some stuff will suck so we won't have to bother... like Flash Gordon.

I am in a similar position with two DVRs that will be really taxed this season and I am looking forward to weeding them out as it progresses. My wife of course thinks I am a loon for watching as much stuff as I do. After reading Keenan's post about his 4 DVRs, I now see I am nowhere as bad as she thinks . That is some rarefied air right there.

Three underwhelming prequels haven't killed the appeal of Star Wars. The season premiere of Fox's Family Guy scored great numbers last night with a spoof of the popular sci fi series on a night where Fox and CBS debuted the bulk of their fall Sunday lineups.

That was pretty funny...and I don't consider myself a huge FAMILY GUY fan.

As far as the "underwhelming" prequels, Lucas' trilogy of failures still managed to scrape up around $2.4 billion in international box office. Somebody out there wasn't completely underwhelmed.

Sorry, the SW geek in me had to come to it's defense.

Money does not buy happiness. It can, however, buy you a giant boat that you can pull up alongside happiness. - David Lee Roth

B&C has just learned that NBC Universal co-chief Ben Silverman wears boxer shorts. I will pause now to let everyone first grasp the magnitude of this exclusive, and then race to tip off your favorite Hollywood insider columnist (paging Defamer or Nikki Finke). You'll have to excuse me if I thought this was legitimate news, given the industry's current obsession with Silverman's personal life.

Whether it is whispered rumors over lunch at the Grill in Beverly Hills or gossip column reports about his partying, recreational drug use, sex life or whatever else, Silverman is apparently like our own little Lindsay Lohan.

Which leads to my one comment about Ben Silverman's private life: Who cares?

That's what I'm wondering.

Do people actually gossip about his personal life and I've just missed it? Enough to the the point B&C write a column about him?

Rex Humbard, 88TV Minister Began Broadcasting Career at Age 13; Founded ‘Electronic Church’
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 9/24/2007

Pioneering TV minister Rex Humbard, who started what he called an electronic church that eventually played host to millions of parishioners across the world, died Friday at a hospital near his home in Lantana, Fla. He was 88.

Humbard, whose son, Charles, is cofounder of Gospel Music Channel, started on TV in 1948 in Indianapolis and eventually was broadcasting a weekly program carried on hundreds of stations in the United States and Canada, as well as internationally.

Born Aug. 13, 1919, in Little Rock, Ark., Rex Humbard began his broadcasting career on KTHS (AM) in Hot Springs, Ark., at age 13, singing gospel and encouraging listeners to come to his father's church. He later had a radio show on the Mutual and NBC radio networks.

"Then in 1952, he was struck by the power of television while jostling in a crowd to watch a Cleveland Indians game through the window of an Akron, Ohio, department-store window," late B&C reporter John Higgins once wrote in a profile of Charles Humbard. "[Rex Humbard] started a ministry in an old movie theater the following year and bought time on TV stations to carry his sermons.”

Higgins continued, "In 1958, the minister built a giant, 5,000-seat church -- named the Cathedral of Tomorrow -- plus an adjacent broadcast facility to produce shows and ship tapes around the world. Humbard’s outfit had all the trademarks of TV evangelists: a folksy storytelling preaching style with plenty of fund-raising and even a financial scandal or two.

At its peak, the Humbard operation leased time on 650 TV stations and claimed to have 20 million viewers around the world."

Survivors include his wife of 65 years, Maude Aimee; sons Rex Jr. and Charles; and daughter Liz.

In NY they gossip about big media; in Washington political gossip abounds; Boston loves to chatter about their Red Sox and in Los Angeles mindless gossip about TV and movie executives is apparently very in. I generally don't post the particularly snarky columns dealing in such.

I must note that Mr. Grossman's specific mention of Nikki Finke might be because she regularly scoops him and the rest of the Reed group -- sometimes by days -- on very major TV and movie news.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VisionOn

That's what I'm wondering.
Do people actually gossip about his personal life and I've just missed it? Enough to the the point B&C write a column about him?

NBC led again at 9 p.m. with a 6.8 for football, followed by Fox with a 5.5 for Guy. ABC was third with a 3.1 for a Desperate Housewives clip show, CBS fourth with a 3.0 for Cold Case, Univision fifth with a 1.1 for the first half of the movie Ni de Aqui, ni de Alla and CW sixth with a 0.8 for a repeat of America's Next Top Model.

"Cold Case" got beat in the key demo by a "Desperate Housewifes" clip show? That can't be good, and led into a freefall for CBS of the 10PM demo when "Shark" premiered. Double ouch!

NEW YORK -- MSNBC will move into its new facilities at 30 Rockefeller Plaza with a change in management, the third such change in a little over a year.

The news channel made several rumored changes official Monday with the news that Dan Abrams, who had replaced Rick Kaplan in June 2006, would return to the air to stay with a nightly primetime show. Taking over for Abrams will be Phil Griffin, an NBC News senior vp whose responsibilities also include "Today" and an MSNBC alum.

It also confirmed that Joe Scarborough, a longtime MSNBC primetime host who had taken over the spot in the channel's morning lineup with the canceling of "Imus in the Morning" in the spring, would get to keep the day job. "Morning Joe" will air from 6 a.m.-9 a.m.

Abrams' new program, "Live With Dan Abrams," will be televised in the 9 p.m. hour Mondays-Thursdays. He had been doing the show for the past three months. Monday's announcement marked the end of the management tenure of Abrams, the NBC News legal analyst and MSNBC host who presided over the channel's growth and rejiggered the lineup to include taped documentaries after 10 p.m. and the severing of ties with Rita Cosby. Abrams also will continue as the network's chief legal correspondent.

Abrams will officially cede management duties when the network leaves its Secaucus, N.J., studios next month. Griffin will be assisted by Shannon High-Bassalik, who will be in charge of MSNBC's live news programming. High-Bassalik had been vp news at WFOR-WBFS-TV in Miami as well as assistant news director at WSVN-TV and other jobs.

Laughs at home equal one, divided by the volume of the laugh track (in decibels per second), times the number of phony guffaws in the laugh track, all multiplied by the number of flatulence jokes per sitcom unit of time, generally expressed as one-half hour, minus the number of funny commercials.

This equation holds true even in elevators hurtling through space, but, following the theory of relativity, of course, will vary depending on the number of beers consumed by the observer.

And, as any scientist can see, it makes it very difficult for sitcoms with laugh tracks to get any real laughs at all.

The Big Bang Theory, premiering tonight at 8:30 on CBS, may revolutionize sitcom science. It may not be a creative breakthrough, but it's lots funnier than the universal equation would predict.

Given the premise - hot-bod Cheesecake Factory waitress moves in across from ultra-geek science geniuses - it's surprising that there's any humor at all. Though you might not know it from his Two and a Half Men, executive producer Chuck Lorre has a knack for humanizing life's outsiders. Remember Dharma and Greg?

She's just 21, but Kaley Cuoco had three years on 8 Simple Rules to refine the art of the bimbo. She's not down with Blossom's Mayim Bialik, who's finishing up her Ph.D. in neuroscience at UCLA, but she conveys a sweetness and normalcy that makes her character much more than a stick figure. Of course, she's much curvier than a stick figure, which is one reason she was hired for the job.

Neighbor Leonard (Roseanne's Johnny Galecki) takes notice and invites her over to lunch. Being as smart as Leonard (their combined IQ is 360), his roommate, Sheldon (little-known Jim Parsons) figures out what's going on, and cautions his friend against building up his expectations.

Leonard: "I'm a male, and she's a female."

Sheldon: "But not of the same species."

Sheldon and Leonard have two other geek friends who visit frequently, and regularly on Tuesdays, when they all play Klingon Boggle, which is just like the regular spelling game, but in the language of the scary Star Trek warriors.

There really is such a language, tlhIngan Hol, made up by a Berkeley linguist Ph.D. And all the crazy-looking and wacky-sounding science stuff in Big Bang Theory is vetted by an astrophysicist, the show's other executive producer, Bill Prady, swears.

"We know that the parody of the Born-Oppenheimer Approximation was a parody of the Born-Oppenheimer Approximation, and it made our consultant laugh," he told TV critics this summer at their annual L.A. convention.

Surprisingly, The Big Bang Theory may have the same effect on regular people, too.

Giving a negative review to "Chuck" (7 p.m. CT Monday, NBC) is like kicking a puppy or taking a kid’s candy. I feel like a heel for even considering it.

Still, despite “Chuck’s” zippy pace and fun dialogue, this nerd-friendly “spy-fi” show from “O.C.” creator Josh Schwartz has plot holes you could drive a truck through. Given the show’s genial, hard-working nature, I wanted to look past those structural problems, but I couldn’t. If you can, then “Chuck” might be your new BFF.

The premise is that Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), a tech-support guy for the Nerd Herd (think Best Buy’s Geek Squad), gets a bunch of super-secret spy information accidentally downloaded into his brain. He’s not thrilled with this development.

Like so many other male characters on new fall shows, Chuck is not exactly brimming with ambition: He can’t even decide whether he wants to apply for the assistant manager position at the electronics store where he works.

But when a ninja invades his home to steal his precious computer and when assassins try to take him down, Chuck must face the fact that the era of playing the videogame “Call of Duty” for hours on end is over.

It’s certainly easy to imagine why a TV executive would respond to this pitch: “It’s ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ meets ‘Alias’!” But therein lies one of “Chuck’s” problems. Those properties had memorable characters (“Alias,” for its first couple of seasons anyway, was a great family soap wrapped inside an exuberant brand of undercover escapism).

Though Levi is certainly a likable presence, it’s hard to invest much in Chuck or his dilemmas, especially because so much of the spy stuff is played for laughs.

Of course this show isn’t trying to emulate “The Bourne Identity” and its sober sequels, but just a tad of believability would have helped “Chuck.” I can’t buy that the government would have stored important spy secrets on a single computer, and that those crucial bits of data would now, through a series of mishaps, reside only in Chuck’s head. (At the very least, Chuck could counsel members of the intelligence community on the importance of backing up their hard drives.)

But my biggest nitpick is this – wouldn’t the information in Chuck’s head, which gets him in and out of various action-oriented scrapes, soon be out of date? All the pop-culture quips and funny ninja battles in the world couldn’t get that killjoy question out of my head.

Aside from Chuck and his funny wingman Morgan (Joshua Gomez), the rest of the cast is fairly bland, especially an undercover spy named Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski). Adam Baldwin does what he can with his gruff spy character, but the fact that his character shoots someone in cold blood in the pilot adds a discordantly dark note to the proceedings.

You may find “Chuck’s” admirable energy and sprightly dialogue makes up for those faults, but personally, I think Chuck had better keep his day job.

The 2007-2008 SeasonNew on the tube:“Dancing,” “Chuck,” “Journeyman,” “Big Bang”
By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star

The fall television season begins tonight, both with a “Bang” and a cha-cha-cha. In addition to the biggest “Dancing with the Stars” yet, two new shows will be sandwiching “Heroes” on NBC and yet another sitcom will joining the CBS Monday lineup.

Note: All times Central.

“Dancing with the Stars” 7 p.m., ABC

Six men -- including Wayne Newton, billionaire Mark Cuban and racer Helio Castroneves -- and six women -- actresses Jennie Garth and Jane Seymour as well as Scary Spice among them -- will compete for the ultimate prize of temporarily elevated fame. (Not that that's wrong. Reliving one's younger celebrity years can be fun, and dancing is safer than botox.)

In an attempt to build steam for a mature reality show, “Dancing” will air three straight nights this week. The women perform with their professional dancing partners tonight, while the men and their partners take the floor at 7 p.m. Tuesday, with the results show 7 p.m. Wednesday announcing which team is going home, but not until after Dolly Parton sings.

Take this with a grain of salt (I did, after all, go 0-for-6 in predicting the major Emmy winners last week, not that anyone else did much better), but I like Mr. Las Vegas' odds of winning. Three reasons why: He's got a street named after him (Wayne Newton Boulevard), he performs on stage all the time, and his partner is two-time “Dancing with the Stars” champion Cheryl Burke. However, my colleague Lisa Gutierrez, a much bigger fan of the show than I am, is putting her chips on “the hot Abercrombie model,” Albert Reed.

“Chuck” 7 p.m., NBC

One of the smartest things new NBC executive Ben Silverman did over the summer was move this show from Tuesday nights to Mondays in the pre-“Heroes” schedule spot. Smart, because I think the “Heroes” audience is going to like the goofy premise, action scenes and clever writing on “Chuck,” a show that also happens to be about an ordinary human who learns he has a superhuman ability.

The sequence of events by which our underachieving hero, $11-an-hour tech support guy Chuck Bartkowski (Zachary Levi), becomes a human repository for all the top-secret data held by the NSA's and CIA's computers would, I suppose, strain credulity -- if there was any time for that. But thanks to a fast-paced opening few minutes, you're moved along so quickly you don't really care how he got all that data downloaded into his brain. He's now a walking anti-terrorism machine. And it's hard to imagine a less likely keeper of the nation's security secrets than Chuck, a guy who'd rather fight his nerdly sidekick Morgan (Joshua Gomez) in Mortal Kombat than any actual terrorist.

Fortunately, he has no choice. With a beautiful CIA spy (Yvonne Strzechowski) looking over one of his shoulders and a trigger-happy NSA twit (Adam Baldwin, no relation to Alec) over the other, combined with the creeping knowledge that he's going nowhere fast in life, Chuck will be forced to put down his joystick and take on the bad guys. The results aren't much different than a video game, for the violence on “Chuck” is pretty cartoony, but after watching two episodes I'm hooked. This is a fun escapist show, although maybe you should tape it and use it for a pick-me-up after the intensity of watching “Heroes.”

“The Big Bang Theory” 7:30 p.m., CBS

Continuing with our nerds-meet-unattainable-blondes theme, Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons are young physicists who have no idea what to do with women. Lucky for them, a hot young woman (Kaley Cuoco) has just moved in down the hall, and is eager to make friends.

I didn't get much of a sense where this show was going from the pilot, though there was nothing to hate about “Big Bang Theory,” and the writing's every bit as sharp as “Two and a Half Men” and “Dharma and Greg,” two comedies overseen by “Big Bang” producer Chuck Lorre. But with its enviable time placements between “How I Met Your Mother” and “Men,” this show will have room to grow. Look for Sara Gilbert to reunite with Galecki (they were married on “Roseanne”) in later episodes.

“Journeyman” 9 p.m., NBC

San Francisco newspaperman Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd, who was great in “Rome”) is having blackouts and finding himself being whisked back to the 1980s, for reasons he knows not. The problem with reviving a time-travel show is there needs to be a really distinctive and appealing twist so that critics won't just write things like, “This reminds me of 'Quantum Leap.'” Neither that show nor its successor, “Early Edition,” had much of a romantic angle, so the success of “Journeyman” would seem to hinge on Dan's relationship with his wife (Gretchen Egolf), which he's now questioning since, in this parallel 1980s world he now visits, his onetime fiancé (Moon Bloodgood) is no longer dead. Can a whole season be spun out of this love triangle? And will anyone care? And what happens if he wakes up in 1989, turns on the TV and sees “Quantum Leap”?

Testing the limits and logic of time-travel and alternate realities, "Journeyman" zaps onto NBC's schedule with a hunky lead ("Rome's" Kevin McKidd") and a confounding pilot, one that raises intriguing questions and answers few of them. Although the series has fun spoofing the past (starting with the size of cellphones) and appears more compatible with "Heroes" than the string of lead-outs that died in its timeslot last season, the show will need to get its bearings soon if it wants to maintain its hold on this reality.

A San Francisco-based reporter, Dan Vasser (McKidd) begins inexplicably waking up in the past, exploring the age-old "Twilight Zone" conundrum of whether altering an event two decades ago -- the dilemma set up in the pilot -- can change outcomes in the future.

Adding spice, questions from the past haunt Dan's life, inasmuch as he's married to one beautiful woman (Gretchen Egolf) but zaps back to a time when he was entranced by another (Moon Bloodgood), whose death profoundly changed the course of events. (The to-die-for Bloodgood also played the imperiled girlfriend of a time-traveler in ABC's "Daybreak," which might qualify as the strangest casting niche ever.)

Referring to his lapses as "trips," Dan has a hard time explaining the sudden absences to family, friends and coworkers. Despite fleeting hints, the pilot from "The West Wing" alums Kevin Falls and Alex Graves is equally vague -- as in "Why him? Why then? What can or can't be changed? What are the rules here?"

As with other series along these lines, that uncertainty can cost a show viewers if the riddle doesn't unspool just right, and the second hour doesn't do much in terms of adding clarity to the picture, although it does feature an amusing glimpse of a 1970s plane flight, reminding us just how pre-9/11 (cigarettes, toy guns, etc.) things were back then.

Brilliant in "Rome," the Scottish McKidd provides a strong central presence, but positioning him as a reporter -- an occupation known more for observing than action -- limits his ability to sway events. And while the general vibe bears a resemblance to "Quantum Leap" by featuring self-contained stories along with a serialized thread, other programs that have tested these waters (the aforementioned "Daybreak," BBC's "Life on Mars") or will (Fox's "The Sarah Connor Chronicles," ABC's planned adaptation of "Life on Mars") either carry cautionary notes or should be watching "Journeyman's" fate with considerable interest.

As with many time-jumping stories, the series does make savvy use of period music, wardrobe and gadgets to define and differentiate the times, but such clever micro details will distract from concerns about the macro picture for only so long.

Despite promising elements, then, "Journeyman" has set itself up with the daunting task of mastering a very tricky high-wire act, one that has left many a movie and TV show engaging in its own quizzical look back, wondering what exactly went wrong.

Hey, maybe if we did away with HD altogether, we could get all those cable/sat channels for free OTA by having all the locals multicast 12 or more SD channels. Instead of launching more sats or laying more cable, we could just build another local station when we need more capacity. That would really put a dent in cable/sat plans to expand, wouldn't it?

I'm happy with the evil internet alternatives, in addition to OTA. And since Battlestar Galactica is aired on a schedule only slightly more frequent than the Sopranos, why should I watch all the godlessly awful filler while waiting for the two or three shows I genuinely care to watch?

To my mind, it is a question of what the commodity is worth to me. 95% of the stuff on cable is downright crap, even if it is HD crap with high production value. Admittedly, this isn't much different than OTA (somewhere between K-Ville and Kid Nation, I think the crap is beginning to smell), but at least with OTA I have a fixed cost.

Frankly, I also don't see how a degraded HD OTA signal is any worse than a the degraded signal that is HD Lite now? The economics of lower bitrates is already hitting the satellite companies. How many folks are on here complaining that channels like HBO are being downsampled to squeeze in more HD Lite channels?

I can't see the value proposition. The thousand or so dollars a year I save without cable programming could just as soon be used to invest more or buy better car insurance or buy tickets to go see football live and in full definition.

For proof of how important the dark horse hit "Heroes" was to an otherwise moribund NBC, look no further than its three most hyped freshman series: "Journeyman," "Chuck" and "Bionic Woman."

Sci fi anyone?

While it's true that the viewing public in recent seasons has proven more open to alternative genres - mixing sci fi with a mystery, or some kind of paranormal element with a standard drama - this trifecta of new series on NBC proves that no good idea can go uncopied in Hollywood.

Of course, for the ultimate example of that, "Heroes" has already spun off from itself with "Heroes: Origins," which will help cover up for some reruns of the mothership and even add a new character to the hit enterprise.

Though it's hard to fault NBC executives for doing what their predecessors have done pretty much since TV was invented - give the people more of what they allegedly want - it's doubtful that all three of these high-profile series will survive the season.

Conventional wisdom says that "Bionic Woman" will win out, mostly because it has a familiar premise (though most people in the target demo never saw the original from the 1970s, which itself was spun off from "The Six Million Dollar Man"). But as glossy and enticing as "Bionic Woman" may seem, there's big trouble in the pilot.

Funny thing about those pilots - as anyone keen on "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" or "The Nine" from last season can attest - they are not entirely representative of what you'll see in the future. (For the aforementioned shows, the pilots were the zenith of otherwise disappointing seasons.)

A second look at the two other NBC series changes the game, too. "Journeyman," about a time-traveling reporter who works in San Francisco, had a spotty pilot mostly because it was unclear how and why the events were happening. "Chuck," on the other hand, was managing to generate a faint amount of buzz for its mixture of comedy, sci fi and action-adventure, despite a charming but underwhelming pilot.

Unfortunately for "Chuck," the second episode is dismal, sucking all the air out of whatever hopes you might have had for that one. "Journeyman," however, benefits greatly from a clearer set of rules for its hero.

So which series will fare the best? While neither fully meets critical expectations, the audience always decides. And "Journeyman" may have the best slot. The series follows "Heroes," and though aggressively entertaining dramas tend to suck the will out of viewers to keep watching for an additional hour, it's hard to beat having a hit series drive its viewers in your direction.

"Chuck," kicking off tonight at 8, will have stiffer competition as the season rolls out, including "Dancing With the Stars" and two comedy blocks on CBS and the CW that provide more entertainment value.

On Wednesdays, "Bionic Woman" has to go against a proven hit in "Criminal Minds" plus the arrival of the "Grey's Anatomy" spin-off, "Private Practice." Unless the writers address the main problem in "Bionic" - more on that shortly - then it's a flaw that will ultimately doom the series.

But let's start with "Journeyman," since the exterior shots were filmed in San Francisco and, of the three, it may be around longer. From Emmy-winning producer and writer Kevin Falls ("The West Wing," "Sports Night"), "Journeyman" stars Kevin McKidd ("Rome") as Dan Vasser, a San Francisco journalist who, quite by accident and without operating instructions, starts time traveling. Though he doesn't understand the hows and whys of it, he begins to figure out that his presence is meant to help someone he meets in those moments. It's not always who he thinks. But by interceding somehow in their lives, he's able to create change (mostly for the positive).

Unfortunately, his erratic behavior has his editor believing he needs to find a 12-step program, and his wife, Katie (Gretchen Egolf), doesn't know what to think. That's part of the problem, however. She's not curious enough - more annoyed that he's missing for stretches than intrigued by the idea of time travel. While this works in the pilot because Lord knows why he's suddenly gone strange (hiding an affair? Suffering from mental illness?), after his story checks out and the second episode begins, she's not nearly as curious as you might imagine.

On the other hand, the series steps up a notch, revealing an innate sense of humor (cell phone jokes, references to the changing times, styles, etc.). It also allows McKidd to shine as Mr. Fix-It, even though he never wanted the task. Some of the subtext needs more episodes to provide breathing room. For example, his fiancee, Livia (Moon Bloodgood), who died years ago, is popping up in his time traveling (and not always in context). And there's the little issue of his wife having dated his brother Jack (Reed Diamond), a police officer. The four of them hung out quite a bit back in the day, before Livia died and Dan stole Katie from Jack.

While that might provide romantic fodder for future episodes, the time traveling and problem solving is the real core of "Journeyman," and if you can overlook some distressing questions about how he does it without getting caught (or divorced or institutionalized), this is a series that may overcome its own contrivances to really succeed.

"Chuck" is more problematic. What it really wants to sell is geeky wish-fulfillment fantasy to the "Heroes" crowd by way of Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), who works at the Buy More electronics store as part of their Nerd Herd (you're meant to think Best Buy and Geek Squad).

Chuck's old college friend Bryce (Matthew Bomer) knew too much in the CIA and, for some reason, was taken out by a member of the NSA named Casey (Adam Baldwin). But before he dies, Bryce sends an e-mail to Chuck that has all the spy secrets of the United States embedded in it - and in a twist that needs a whole lot more explaining, this information somehow gets embedded in Chuck's brain, thus making him valuable property to other people in the government, like CIA femme fatale Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski), and a target for assassins.

"Chuck" plays the geek-spy thing for laughs and thrills, but despite the Zach Braff-like appeal of Levi (and the comic chops of Joshua Gomez as his buddy Morgan), "Chuck" has deathly serious-tone issues. Not only does government agents killing each other seem unlikely, it also plays as amateur action hour (did they mean it to seem like a spoof?). Despite Strahovski's loveliness, "Chuck" is best when Levi is onscreen, playing a goof. When anyone else (outside of Gomez) has a line or scene, it feels like "The A-Team."

That's not a good thing, even if you like retro.

But NBC is betting that "Bionic Woman" is. This modern remake - by David Eick, who did an unbelievably great job "reimagining" another old sci-fi clunker, "Battlestar Galactica" - wants to be a lot darker than the campy original.

The "Bionic Woman" - also named Jaime Sommers (played by Michelle Ryan from the British series "EastEnders") - is rebuilt after a bloody car accident by a super-secret group that wants to enlist her in the forces of good. The trouble lies in the casting and the concept. Ryan seems too inert, not nearly aggressive enough for the role. This becomes clear when she faces off with "Battlestar Galactica" star Katee Sackhoff, who plays the first rebuilt Bionic Woman - gone bad. Not only is Sackhoff infinitely more likable as an antiheroine, she pops off the screen while Ryan doesn't.

They got the wrong bionic woman. Either that or they need to let the bad bionic woman get a whole lot more screen time. When the two do battle in the pilot, you can't help but think, "Why am I rooting for the bad girl?"

For some time now, CBS has been able to pull off a near miracle - deliver standard, old-school sitcoms that defy the limitations of the genre and are, for the most part, genuinely funny.

Not enough has been written about this upset of the natural order, the way of all things TV. You may not buy the box set of "Two and a Half Men," but for better or worse, it's humorous most of the time. If that series seems a little too mainstream for you, CBS offered up "How I Met Your Mother," which managed to seem not only younger than most CBS comedies, but also a lot funnier. "The New Adventures of Old Christine" did the same thing. And even last year's "Rules of Engagement" did the same.

It was as if CBS had come up with some weird concoction, a machine that blended hoary sitcom standards and egregious laugh tracks with better punch lines, more likable characters and some gel-like substance that made them all go down easier.

If you liked, ahem, "edgier" fare on cable channels or subtler comedy (say, "Arrested Development," for example), copping to liking CBS sitcoms was hard to do, but also hard to deny for the truly honest. They made good comedies - wrapped in your dad's clothes.

But no system is perfect.

Just as "The Class" was dreadful from the start, so too is "The Big Bang Theory," precisely the kind of coyly predictable hackery one expects from traditional sitcoms. It's almost a welcome relief that CBS didn't nail another one, because the whole silk purse/sow's ear thing was getting hard to explain. "The Big Bang Theory" comes from Chuck Lorre, who probably got this insipid idea past CBS programmers because he's the one who makes "Two and a Half Men." But "Big Bang Theory" makes "Two and a Half Men" look like "Seinfeld" in comparison.

It's about two nerds, Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons), who typify the geek-squared rule of thumb that all bad comedy writers think of when fleshing out characters. They have super-nerdy friends. They do super-smart things. They are social misfits. Then one day a hot but dumb blonde moves into the apartment across the hall. Penny (Kaley Cuoco) likes astrology and works at the Cheesecake Factory and says she's a vegetarian but loves meat and before you can say, "My God this is heinous," the writers have managed to have her take a shower at the nerd's apartment in the first episode.

Now that takes some doing. You got the girl into a towel in under 15 minutes. Well played, hackmeisters.

Luckily, the writing here is so moronic and the situations so forced and mundane, it's easier to dismiss what is, all told, pretty fantastic work on behalf of Galecki and Parsons. Honestly, they make woeful material seem merely offensive. They play cliched geeks about as well as anyone can expect. And they both mine laughs where none, justifiably, ought to be. That's good acting. It will be nice to see these guys get work in something that will do justice to their talents.

Here's hoping that opportunity presents itself in fewer than three episodes.

I am in a similar position with two DVRs that will be really taxed this season and I am looking forward to weeding them out as it progresses. My wife of course thinks I am a loon for watching as much stuff as I do. After reading Keenan's post about his 4 DVRs, I now see I am nowhere as bad as she thinks . That is some rarefied air right there.

Actually a lack of air all together would be more like it, causing a touch of lunacy.

I figure a good 25% of these shows will be gone by Jan, but being a TV nut you have to sample as much as you can in case there's a few jewels to stick with.

I don't usually read the preview reviews(sorry Fred ) as I like to see it fresh and form my own opinion, but, I can already say, based on just the on-air promos, that IMO, "Chuck" on NBC is going to see an earlier death. There's a couple of others(ABC?) that I can't think of right now as well.

Just as a counterpoint to this Maureen Ryan, who has a personal problem with Chuck Lorre (she hates Two and Half Men, too) ....

TV ReviewsWhy I post them

Every once in a while it appears to be important to explain why I post reviews (even if I can't seduce Jim into reading them).

Let’s start with one basic fact: I don’t really care what you enjoy watching on TV. If it is on network or major cable stations, you will probably hear about it here. At the top of this thread, in post #6, I keep an updated list of programs I watch. That is so you can try to decipher if many of my own prejudices sneak into what I post.

Generally my philosophy is that if I can steer you to one or two shows a season that you like, so much the better.

Now, as promised, to the reviews.

I try to post a variety of opinions about most new shows. I generally use most of the same reviewers – either because they have been consistent over the years, their writing amuses me, or both. In most cases they have covered TV for years. In all cases, I trust their work even though I often might disagree with their reviews.

Often I do NOT post reviews from the trade publications, especially “Variety” and “The Hollywood Reporter”, because I usually find them very inside-Hollywood. That is more a general guideline than a rule however, and it is often broken. (Hey, it is MY guideline.)

The idea is to give you at least a hint about whether you want to spend time with a new show.I don’t keep tabs on whether one reviewer or another likes or doesn’t like a producer, actor, show runner or network executive.

I just want you to have a range of opinions to choose from so you can find new programs you are glad you discovered here.

Catching up with other popular returning series going through some changes:

• "House" (returns 9 PM ET/PT, Tuesday, Fox)

Things start out very differently this year in the world of the brilliant but irascible Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), as all the members of House's team left in the season finale. Foreman (Omar Epps), Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) and Chase (Jesse Spencer) will all be back eventually but, in the meantime, House has been forced to look for replacements. Among those under consideration: new characters played by the likes of Kal Penn ("24"), Edi Gathegi ("Lincoln Heights") and Olivia Wilde ("The Black Donnellys").

• "Grey's Anatomy" (returns 9 PM ET/PT, Thursday, ABC)

In the new year at Seattle Grace Hospital, Isaiah Washington is gone - as you may have heard - and takes his character Preston Burke with him. Kate Walsh's Addison Montgomery is off to Santa Monica and her "Grey's" spinoff, "Private Practice." The controversial George (T.R. Knight) and Izzie (Katherine Heigl) thing is still going on, no matter how much fans hate it. Miranda (Chandra Wilson) is still smarting from losing the attending job to Callie (Sara Ramirez), George's wife.

Of course, there's McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), but there are complications in the form of Meredith's half-sister Lexie (Chyler Leigh), who popped up in last season's finale. Sandra Oh's Cristina Yang is trying to pick up the pieces after being dumped by Burke. And, oh, yeah, Ava (Elizabeth Reaser) returns and Alex (Justin Chambers) finally realizes he has feelings for her.

• "CSI" (returns 9 PM ET/PT, Thursday, CBS)

There are two big questions as the new season opens: Will the Miniature Killer story line ever end, and will Sara Sidle be killed off since longtime cast member Jorja Fox is leaving the series? The answer to the former: Thankfully, yes. The answer to the latter: still unclear, but the betting is yes, since there's a new female investigator coming onboard and Fox hasn't been part of any promotion, including cast photos.

• "Desperate Housewives" (returns 9 PM ET/PT, Sunday, ABC)

When we last visited Wisteria Lane, Lynette (Felicity Huffman) had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Gaby (Eva Longoria) was canoodling with ex-hubby Carlos, Bree (Marcia Cross) was faking a pregnancy, Susan (Teri Hatcher) had married Mike, and Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) had appeared to have committed suicide. No way am I going to spoil the Edie suicide story line, so let's concentrate on other stuff.

The show may get a boost this fall from some additions to the cast, including Dana Delany (the original choice to play Bree) as a housewife who returns to Wisteria Lane after a long absence and with a new husband (Nathan Fillion). One prominent cast member - a guy - gets killed early on. The pregnancy of Bree's daughter Danielle (Joy Lauren) plays a big part in the season. And, oh, yeah, Gaby's life is further complicated by the return of hunky garden guy John (Jesse Metcalfe).

• "Lost" (returning ?????): Hey, we've got enough going in the fall. We'll get to "Lost" - and "24" and "Jericho" - when they come back at midseason.

The matchups on the field have yet to be determined, but TBS has named its booth pairings for the four Major League division series.

During its first season coverage of MLB’s post-season, Turner Sports will have veteran sportscaster Dick Stockton perform play-by-play duties, alongside Bob Brenly’s analyst role. Also being paired in those respective capacities are Ted Robinson and Steve Stone and Don Orsillo and Joe Simpson.

The three teams join the previously announced group that will match Chip Cary, calling the game, with 2007 Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn as analyst.

During TBS’s exclusive coverage of this year’s National League Championship Series, Brenly will join Caray and Gwynn in the booth.

In addition to its television coverage, TBS will also expand up its broadband content with the recently launched TBS Hot Corner on MLB.com.

Two-time American League most valuable player and five-time All-Star Frank Thomas has been named to Turner Sports studio squad. Currently the designated hitter for the Toronto Blue Jays, Thomas joins the previously announced studio team of two-time Emmy-award winning host Ernie Johnson and 2007 Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. on the TBS MLB On Deck show, presented by Chevrolet, and the post-game show Inside MLB presented by Captain Morgan, as well as during TBS Game Break.

Also contributing to the postseason telecasts will be field reporters Craig Sager, Marc Fein, José Mota and David Aldridge.

“We are thrilled to have such as well-respected and knowledgeable team of announcers for the MLB postseason and they, along with our production crew, will bring the same high-level of passion, commitment and sports expertise to the playoffs that viewers have come to expect from Turner-produced telecasts.” said Turner Sports executive producer Jeff Behnke in a statement.

“Our breadth of coverage for both online and on television will provide fans with the most comprehensive information and exclusive access to all things MLB during the postseason.”

Are any of the tv networks ready for a lack of young viewers this week? Because I know I (and many of my friends) will not be watching any of the new shows this week due to Halo 3 coming out. I wonder if Microsoft planned it so Halo 3 launches the week when all of the new network shows are starting.

Are any of the tv networks ready for a lack of young viewers this week? Because I know I (and many of my friends) will not be watching any of the new shows this week due to Halo 3 coming out. I wonder if Microsoft planned it so Halo 3 launches the week when all of the new network shows are starting.

Good news for Ken Burns and PBS' "The War" mini-series. More non-young viewers left to sample the mini-series!

Wow. Can you feel the excitement of the night that has nearly arrived - and naturally, I speak of "Dancing with the Stars," season five (ABC 8 ET/PT).
This is a big deal, for "Dancing" fans anyway, so let's get straight down to business. Who's gonna win?
I'm sticking the neck at this moment, and will predict the winner of the fifth season of "Dancing," and that is...(can you feel the excitement?)...and her name is...(have you guessed yet?)...

There's logic to my madness, so read my handicaps, and then tell me how little I know, or whether I’m on to something.• Melanie "Mel B" Brown, 32, Spice Girls, partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy. Odds: 7:1. I kinda like Scary's chances because she's exactly the right age - the average age of the past four winners is 32 - but there's so much career baggage that she's bringing to the dance floor that I find it almost impossible to imagine her winner.

• Helio Castroneves, 32, racecar driver, partner, Julianne Hough. Odds: 8:1. "Stars" loves athletes - the last two winners - but 'Neves problem may be simply that he's a guy and the odds are that a woman will win this time.

• Jennie Garth, 35, actress ("Beverly Hills, 90210"), partner, Derek Hough. 10:1. Again, we have an age issue here. Not a serious one, and if she had even the slightest athletic background, that would be a factor in her favor, but she doesn't so...

• Josie Maran, 29, supermodel, partner, Alec Mazo. Odds: 100:1. I just don't think Maran's got the heart for this. She told TV Guide she used to think the show was cheesy - naturally, she was right - and decided to do this to promote her new line of cosmetics.

• Cameron Mathison, 38, actor (“All My Children”), partner, Edyta Sliwinska. Odds: 20:1. Interesting possibility, and actors seem to do well here. Did you know (I didn't) that Mathison had to wear leg braces as a kid? (He had Perthes disease, per his Wiki entry.) Doubtful that'd be a factor now...

• Floyd Mayweather, Jr., 30, boxer, partner, Karina Smirnoff. Odds: 50:1. On paper, he's perfect - right age and great athlete. But he's also got a big fight coming up in December, and that's gotta be a huge distraction.

• Wayne Newton, 65, singer, partner, Cheryl Burke. Odds: 500,000:1. This would be a million to one, except his partner is Burke, who is a miracle worker. But miracles won't work here.

• Sabrina Bryan, 22, actress, partner, Mark Ballas. Odds: 4:1. On paper, she absolutely looks right. Right sex (a woman HAS to win this time), right age (athleticism is a major deciding factor), and right affiliation. She's a Disney employee, and the Cheetah Girls movie is coming out next year, and don't you think the judges will want to keep her around as long as humanly possible? Also, she's got moves - did a workout video last year.